To belt or not to belt? That is the question

Jul 31, 2018 04:21PM
● By Jana Klopsch

Currently seat belts on buses are only available for students with special needs. (Jet Burnham/City Journals)

By Jet Burnham | j.burnham@mycityjournals.com

Following a recent
school bus tragedy in New Jersey, the issue of school bus safety is under renewed
scrutiny. The Federal Transportation Safety Board released a statement
in May urging school districts to install seat belts on buses.

The issue is not
new to Utah. Utah Rep. Craig Hall, of West Valley, proposed a bill in 2016 to
require seat belts on Utah school buses.

“We require, by
law, for all children and all adults in our own personal vehicles to wear seat
belts,” said Hall. “And we can be fined as parents if our kids don’t have their
seat belts on. But for some reason, we deem it perfectly acceptable to put kids
in buses with no seat belts at all.”

Herb Jensen, Jordan
School District director of transportation, thinks the idea of putting seat
belts on school buses is an emotional issue.

“A lot of people
think that if it’s the right thing for their minivan, then it should be the
right thing for a school bus, but that isn’t necessarily the case,” he said.

Jensen is
confident in the engineering and design of school buses to protect passengers
without a restraint through compartmentalization, protecting students with
closely spaced seats with tall, energy-absorbing seat backs.

Hall said through
his research, he found compartmentalization is ineffective in rollover or side
impact crashes or when kids aren’t sitting appropriately.

“Students are
tossed about the interior of the bus like clothes in a dryer,” he said.

In contrast, when
a child is buckled in, he said they are far less likely to be injured and can
evacuate easily with the click of a button.

“An uninjured
child can move more quickly than an injured or unconscious or dead child,” he
said.

One of Jensen’s
concerns about seat belts is they would exacerbate the situation if children
can’t get out of them independently or if they are stuck high in the air after
a rollover.

Jensen said fires
on buses are more common. He believes restraints would impede a quick
evacuation, especially for young children.

In his experience,
he also believes students would play around and misuse seat belts, causing needless
injuries.

Jensen said facts
and data support that seat belts on buses is not the right answer.

“School buses are
extremely safe already,” he said. “It would be hard to justify the expense
because it’s extremely unlikely that a child is going to lose their life if
they’re on the inside of a school bus.”

Jensen noted there
hasn’t been a casualty inside a Jordan District bus for more than 80 years.

“I would daresay
there’s not a safer vehicle on the road than a school bus,” he said. “You don’t
want to run into a school bus because you’ll lose.”

Jensen cites statistics
from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which reports out of
324,710 motor vehicle fatalities from 2006–2015, only five were passengers on a
school bus.

“We transport
15,000 kids twice a day and drive millions of miles a year on our buses,” said
Jensen. “Although we do have accidents, we don’t have casualties with the
occupants of the bus. I think that data speaks for itself.”

Jensen said if state
or federal legislation passes, the district will comply.

Hall said he is monitoring
the situation to see what happens on the federal level before he initiates
another bill in the next Utah legislative session.

“Eventually, this
is going to happen,” said Hall. “And unfortunately, sometimes it takes a tragic
accident for the seat belts to be put into the school buses.”

According to FTSB,
at least 29 states have introduced school bus seat belt legislation in the last
year, but high costs have been a roadblock for many. Hall estimates only about
six states have school bus seat belt regulations.

To reduce costs,
Hall said any bill he initiates will require seat belts on new buses only.

The National
Transportation Safety Board also recommended requiring collision-avoidance
systems and automatic emergency brakes on new school buses, citing that most bus
accidents are caused by human error.